Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Consumer Guide® Automotive respects your privacy. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) applies solely to information collected through the web sites, web pages, interactive features, applications and blogs, located at the following URL(s): consumerguide.com; in addition to related Twitter, Facebook or other social networking sites, and their respective contents, whether accessed via computer, mobile device or other technology (collectively, the “Sites”). The Sites are offered by Consumer Guide® Automotive and its affiliated companies and Site developers (collectively, “the Company,” or “we”, “us”, “our”).

This Privacy Policy explains what information may be collected through the Sites, how such information may be used and/or shared with others, how we safeguard it and how you may access and control its use in connection with our marketing communications and activities. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully, and review it on a regular basis, because by using the Sites you are acknowledging that you understand and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT ON OUR SITE

Information You Provide To Us

We may collect information that could reasonably be used to contact you or to identify you personally, such as your name and e-mail address (“Personal Information”). The types of Personal Information we collect may vary depending upon your use of the features of the Sites. For example, we may collect Personal Information when you request information, submit comments or participate in some promotion, survey or other feature of the Sites, or otherwise communicate or interact with us. The Sites may also ask you to provide other information about yourself, such as certain information about your preferences, buying history and interests, and other information that we think might help us make our Sites more interesting and useful to you. If we combine demographic or other information we collect about you with Personal Information about you, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information. If you do not want your Personal Information collected, please do not submit it.

Information We Collect Automatically

Usage Information. Whenever you visit or interact with the Sites, the Company, as well as any third-party advertisers and/or service providers, may use a variety of technologies that automatically or passively collect information about how the Sites are accessed and used (“Usage Information”). Usage Information may include, in part, browser type, device type, operating system, application version, the page served, the time, the preceding page views and your use of features or applications on the Sites. This statistical data provides us with information about the use of the Sites, such as how many visitors visit a specific page on the Sites, how long they stay on that page, and which hyperlinks, if any, they “click” on. This information helps us keep the Sites fresh and interesting to our visitors and tailor content to a visitor’s interests.

Device Identifier. The Company may also automatically collect your IP address or other unique identifier (“Device Identifier”) for the computer, mobile device, tablet, technology or other device (collectively, “Device”) you use to access the Sites. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned to your Device when you access a web site or its servers, and our computers identify your Device by its Device Identifier. We may use a Device Identifier to, among other things, administer the Sites, help diagnose problems with our servers, analyze trends, track users’ web page movements, help identify you and your shopping cart, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

The technologies used on the Sites to collect Usage Information, including Device Identifiers, include but are not limited to:

Cookies; Pixel Tags. The technologies that may be used on the Sites to collect Usage Information, including Device Identifiers, include but are not limited to: cookies (data files placed on a Device when it is used to visit the Sites), mobile analytics software and pixel tags (transparent graphic image, sometimes called a web beacon or tracking beacon, placed on a web page or in an email, which indicates that a page or email has been viewed). Cookies may also be used to associate you with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and, if you so choose, enable interaction between your activities on the Sites and your activities on such social networking sites. We, or our vendors, may place cookies or similar files on your Device for security purposes, to facilitate site navigation and to personalize your experience while visiting the Sites (such as allowing us to select which ads or offers are most likely to appeal to you, based on your interests, preferences, location, or demographic information). A pixel tag may tell your browser to get content from another server.

To learn how you may be able to reduce the number of cookies you receive from us, or delete cookies that have already been installed in your browser’s cookie folder, please refer to your browser’s help menu or other instructions related to your browser. If you do disable or opt out of receiving cookies, please be aware that some features and services on the Sites may not work properly because we may not be able to recognize and associate you with your account(s). In addition, the offers we provide when you visit us may not be as relevant to you or tailored to your interests.

2. HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The Company uses the information we collect about and from you for a variety of business purposes, including for example: to send you emails about certain content on Consumer Guide® Automotive and other related sites; to respond to your questions and requests; to provide you with access to certain areas and features of the Sites or those of our parents, affiliates or subsidiaries; to verify your identity; communicate with you about your account and activities on the Sites and, in our discretion, changes to any Company policy; to tailor content, advertisements, and offers we serve you; for future marketing and/or promotional use about Consumer Guide® Automotive; to survey visitors about various topics; for internal business purposes; to process applications and transactions (including when you purchase products or services through the Sites); and for purposes disclosed at the time you provide your Personal Information or otherwise with your consent. We may collect your location-based information for the purpose of providing you with certain products and services in your area.

3. SHARING OF INFORMATION

Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, we will not provide any of your Personal Information to any third parties without your specific consent. We may share non-Personal Information, such as aggregate data and Usage Information, with third parties. We may also share your information as disclosed at the time you provide your information, as set forth in this Privacy Policy and in the following circumstances:

Third Parties Providing Services on Our Behalf. In order to carry out your requests, to make various features, services and materials available to you through the Sites, and to respond to your inquiries, we may share your Personal Information with third parties that perform functions on our behalf (or on behalf of our partners), such as companies or individuals that host or operate our Sites, analyze data, process transactions and payments, fulfill orders or provide customer service; providers of “digital locker” services where materials you are permitted to download through the Sites may be stored online; advertisers; or sponsors or other third parties that participate in or administer our promotions, contests, sweepstakes or surveys, or provide marketing or promotional assistance (such as in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment, and as required by law, such as on a winners list). Your Personal Information may also be used by us or shared with our parents, affiliates or subsidiaries; marketing partners; agents; consultants; attorneys; accountants; auditors; content or service providers, including maintenance and technical service providers.

Your Agreement to Have Your Personal Information Shared. While on our Sites, you may have the opportunity to opt-in to receive information and/or marketing offers from someone else or to otherwise consent to the sharing of your information with a third party, including social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. If you agree to have your Personal Information shared, your Personal Information will be disclosed to the third party and the Personal Information you disclose will be subject to the privacy policy and business practices of that third party.

Business Transfers. We may share your Personal Information with other entities and our affiliates primarily for business and operational purposes. In the event that the Company is involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction.

Legal Disclosure. We may transfer and disclose information, including your Personal Information and Usage Information to third parties to comply with a legal obligation; when we believe in good faith that the law or a governmental authority requires it; to verify or enforce our Terms of Use or other applicable policies; to address fraud, security or technical issues; to respond to an emergency; or otherwise to protect the rights, property, safety, or security of third parties, visitors to our Sites or the public.

4. INFORMATION WE RECEIVE FROM THIRD PARTIES

The Company may receive information about you from third parties. For example, if you are on another web site and you opt-in to receive information from the Company that web site will forward to us your e-mail address and other information about you so that we may contact you as requested. You may also choose to participate in a third party application or feature (such as one of our Facebook or Twitter applications, mobile applications or a similar application or feature on a third party web site) through which you allow us to collect (or the third party to share) information about you, including Usage Information and Personal Information such as lists of your friends, “likes”, comments you have shared, groups and location. Services like Facebook Connect give you the option to post information about your activities on the Sites to your profile page to share with others within your network. In addition, we may receive information about you if other users of a third party web site give us access to their profiles and you are one of their “connections” or information about you is otherwise accessible through your “connections” web page, profile page, or similar page on a social networking or other third party web site or interactive service.

Certain third parties may join with us to offer web site activities or features, such as news, videos, and other content offerings, or promotions, such as contests, sweepstakes or special events. For joint web site activities, the co-sponsor or partner of the activity may directly request and collect your Personal Information. If you submit Personal Information in joint activities, the co-sponsor or partner may share Personal Information submitted for the activity with us and/or we may share such information with them. The co-sponsor or partner may also maintain separate privacy policies governing the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information. We, our parent, affiliates and subsidiaries are not responsible for the collection, use and disclosure practices of third parties. We and/or the third party partner or co-sponsor may also use the Personal Information collected in conjunction with such activities for the marketing of additional services, promotions or events. Depending on the activity, visitors will be able to either grant approval on the types of additional offers or services they want to receive before Personal Information is collected, or choose to deny use of their Personal Information for additional purposes.

We may also supplement the information we collect about you through the Sites with information from third parties in order to enhance our ability to serve you, to tailor our content to you and to offer you opportunities to purchase products or services that we believe may be of interest to you. We may combine the information we receive from these third parties with information we collect through the Sites. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Policy to any Personal Information received, unless we have disclosed otherwise.

5. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS, CHOICE AND ACCESS

You may always direct us not to share your Personal Information with third parties, not to use your Personal Information to provide you with information or offers, or not to send you newsletters, e-mails or other communications by: (i) sending us an e-mail at comments@consumerguide.com, with the following in the subject line: “unlist me”; (ii) contacting us by mail at 8140 Lehigh, Morton Grove, IL 60053 or (iii) following the removal instructions in the communication that you receive. Your opt-out request will be processed within 30 days of the date on which we receive it.

If you wish to verify, correct, delete or update any of your Personal Information collected through the Sites, you may edit your profile preferences or contact us at the above address or e-mail. In accordance with our routine record keeping, we may delete certain records that contain Personal Information you have submitted through the Sites. We are under no obligation to store such Personal Information indefinitely and disclaim any liability arising out of, or related to, the destruction of such Personal Information. In addition, you should be aware that it is not always possible to completely remove or delete all of your information from our databases without some residual data because of backups and other reasons. We will retain your information (including location data) for as long as needed to provide you services. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We do not control certain privacy settings and preferences maintained by our social media partners like Facebook and Twitter. If you wish to make changes to those settings and preferences, you may do so by visiting the settings page of the appropriate social media site.

6. ADVERTISING/BEHAVIORAL TARGETING; HOW TO OPT-OUT

The Company may license technology to serve advertisements on its own Sites and within its content as that content is served across the Internet. In addition, the Company may use third party network advertisers to serve advertisements and third party analytics vendors to evaluate and provide us with information about the use of the Sites and viewing of our content. We do not share Personal Information with these third parties (unless, of course, you give us permission), but ad network providers, the advertisers, the sponsors, and/or analytics service providers may set and access their own cookies, pixel tags and similar technologies on your Device to serve you ads or other content personalized to your interests which they infer from your browsing on the Sites and other sites you may have visited. In doing so, the provider collects or has access to information about you, including Usage Information. The use of cookies, pixel tags or similar technologies by these providers is subject to their own privacy policies, not ours. We and our network advertisers may target advertisements for products and services in which you might be interested based on your visits to both the Sites and other web sites. We may use a variety of companies to serve advertisements.

If we choose to serve advertisements on the Sites, we will provide you with a means of opting out of receiving such advertisements.

7. CHILDREN

The Sites are not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect, use or disclose personally identifiable information from anyone under 13 years of age. If we determine upon collection that a user is under this age, we will not use or maintain his/her Personal Information without the parent/guardian’s consent. If we become aware that we have unknowingly collected personally identifiable information from a child under the age of 13, we will make reasonable efforts to delete such information from our records.

8. SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION

We use certain reasonable security measures to help protect your Personal Information. However, no electronic data transmission or storage of information can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Please note that we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you use the Sites and provide us with your information at your own risk.

9. OTHER SITES

The Sites may contain links to other sites that we do not own or operate. This includes links from advertisers, sponsors and partners that may use our logo(s) as part of a co-branding or co-marketing agreement. We do not control, recommend or endorse and are not responsible for these sites or their content, products, services or privacy policies or practices. These other web sites may send their own cookies to your Device, they may independently collect data or solicit Personal Information and may or may not have their own published privacy policies. You should also independently assess the authenticity of any site which appears or claims that it is one of our sites (including those linked to through an email or social networking page).

The Sites may make available chat rooms, forums, message boards, and news groups. Remember that any information that you disclose in these areas becomes public information and is not subject to the provisions of this Privacy Policy.

10. CONSENT TO PROCESSING AND TRANSFER OF INFORMATION

The Sites are operated in the United States. By using the Sites, or providing us with any information, you (a) acknowledge that the Sites are subject to the laws of the United States, (b) consent to the collection, processing, maintenance and transfer of such information in and to the United States and other applicable territories in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as or equivalent to those in the country where you reside and/or are a citizen, and (c) waive any claims that may arise under those laws.

11. CHANGES

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material changes we will notify you by means of a notice on the Sites prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

12. CONTACT US

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Publications International, Ltd.
8140 Lehigh
Morton Grove, IL 60053

Telephone: (847) 676-3470
Email: comments@consumerguide.com

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